Guardian Angel
by Rob Midnight
Summary: He broke a promise, now he had to pay the price, the love of his life's tears.


His eyes were focused on his skin, on his wrists, observing where his veins were, were his blood was running.

Wrists clean… Mess of a mind.

He still could see a light line were a cut had once been, where once was wound he caused. What he once used to set himself free from pain. From his mind he had taken that one wound and placed it on his skin. On his wrist.

And his mother saw, he had just woke up, was looking for his breakfast, he had pulled his sleeves up without even noticing. That was when his mom came to the room and noticed the red mark on his skin.

She came running, but silent.

"William." She said loud enough to only the two of them to hear, she hold his wrist and turned it up and stared at it. She looked around, looking for someone that could see them, then she turned to meet his eyes.

"Mom" he tried.

"Will, look at me. It's not your fault, I don't know what made you do this, but it's not your fault" She said. "Come here"

William followed his mother to the kitchen's sink, she carefully washed the wound then dried it.

"Look at me" she said and he obeyed. "You know what that means?" she indicated the cut on his wrist.

He denied.

"Only angels, William. The ones with marked wrists are angels, these angels can't take what the world has for them, they are too hurt already. They want to go home, they want heaven."

"Mom, I'm not—"

She pulled up her sleeve and pointed a light mark on her arm.

"Once I was an angel, sweetheart." She said "And so are you, but, for the sanity of these old angel here, I beg you not to do that again if you can. Promise me that you'll try."

He took a long while and let out a whisper.

"I promise".

And for years he kept his promise.

Now, lying on the bathroom floor of his campus bedroom, he felt guilty.

There was an open wound on his skin again, he felt so deadly guilty.

It was his fault, somehow. On his mind it was his fault. His damn fault.

He heard the door, someone was coming in. Not anyone. _She_.

"Will"

Her sweet voice called for him.

_No._

"Will?"

She came to the bathroom.

"Oh my! Will!"

She kneeled next to him, she saw the blood, the dirty razor on the floor next to his hand.

"Oh my God. Will, you're pale." She touched his face, there was tears on her eyes that she was fighting heard.

He could see fear, like he had never seen before. She was scared, terrified.

And she could see pain on his eyes, but also emptiness. Death on his eyes.

"Will" she cried out. "Please, say something."

"You—" his voice was weak "You shouldn't be here, Licia"

She whispered on relief and held him.

"He's gone, Alicia. It's my fault, he killed himself. He was overwhelmed. Sara and Aubrey don't have a dad anymore. I chose the law over my family" he said crying, holding her.

"No, it's not your fault, honey. It's okay, it'll be okay. You didn't do this, it's not your fault." She said holding him. "God! I thought I'd lost you."

He held her there, smelling the vanilla of her brow hair, a drop of guilty on his heart for her, for how scared she was, how awful he felt for making her cry. He was in pain and all he could think about was cutting, he didn't thought about how she'd feel.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Leesh"

"It's okay, baby. It's okay. It's gonna be okay".

She kissed his forehead and kept him on her arms as if he would die if she ever let him go.

They were too young, they were too connected, and it was so simple: I can't lose you. Never.

It was platonic, he would hide, she wouldn't admit. They were in love.

Later that they he told her what scared his mind and she kept it secret, they never talked about what happened in the bathroom, but they knew it happened. They knew that pain, that fear, that moment that would stay locked on the back of their minds and on his skin, on his wrist, under a long sleeved shirt.

And he would promise Alicia what he promised his mother.

He would do his best not to cut again, because as much of a hurt angel he was, he also was a guardian angel, even his name said it. William, William that meant absolute protector. He would protect them for as long as he lived. A hurt angel, but a hurt guardian angel. A tiger that gained his stripes after a long war with himself.

For his mother and for Alicia he would try to be a guardian angel over his hurt angel.

He breathed out.

An angel.


End file.
